TV's 21 Most Polarizing Characters: Do You Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

There are certain names — belonging to fictional TV characters, mind you — that when highlighted in a TVLine news item or feature story elicit, um, “strong” reactions from their show’s collective fan base.

So, here now, we pay tribute to the most polarizing, divisive, love-‘em or hate-‘em TV characters now inhabiting primetime. Take a look at our list, then sound off in Comments if you find these folks desirable, or despicable. Awesome, or loathsome. Also feel free to nominate any other fan base rousers!

I love dan!!! he’s the hero for every guy who ever stuck in the friend zone, who need a prince or a billionaire if they treat you poorly, and as a character, he progress through out the year, he’s the good one, stop making him the villain in the show
why jess and ted in the list? I though everyone love them

1. Pierce: Like him. I think he’s a good contrast against the generally younger dynamic of the group, and the whole thing they hint at sometimes on the show about Jeff possibly turning into Pierce if he doesn’t change his ways is an interesting scenario to explore. Sure he’s obnoxious and cranky and blunt and offensive, but he also has had his decent moments, and I think he does care about the group, and they him. It’d be weird to picture the group without Pierce.
2. Blaine: Like him. I’m not a hardcore “Glee” fan, I don’t “ship” anyone on the show, so to speak, but I do like him and Kurt together, and he seems like a nice kid, so…*Shrugs*.
3. Robert California: Didn’t care for him. Nothing against the guy personally or anything like that, just, it’s hard to follow Michael Scott, and I like the idea of the group on that show just trying to follow in Michael’s footsteps instead. He just didn’t seem a really good fit.

I don’t see why that makes you sad? I believe he’s considered a polarizing character because just the mention of his name tends to start up arguments and debates. People feel strongly about him whether it’s love or, in my case, hate.

Well, it only took me about 6 YEARS to scan through all the comments here, and to save the rest of you a little time, I’d like to offer a summary: “OMG, your opinion is different than mine SO I HATE YOUR STUPID FACE.” You’re welcome.

Ha, well said. Seriously, people, I love the passion in here and the debates are entertaining in a “pull up a chair and get a bag of popcorn” sort of way, but 1), you people ARE aware these characters aren’t real and these are just TV shows, right? It’s cool to be a big fan and all, but some of you seem to be blurring the line between fantasy and reality in a frightening way. And 2), the personal insults…yeah. That needs to stop. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and people need to deal with that and learn to chill out.
And I swear if I hear someone use the word “butthurt” one more time…

Kurt/Chris is one of the most uniquely beautiful human beings I’ve ever seen. Blaine/Darren does absolutely nothing for me, and sometimes his outrageous faces gross me out. Appeal is definitely subjective.

YES! Oh I can’t stand her. Well, with The Governor arriving next season, she may be going . And BTW…can’t stand Betty Draper, either. I hope that MM will keep most of the storytelling about the agency again. :-)

Fugly wow , a+ words. And clearly has no talent because he didnt go on broadway and sell most of his tickets, oh and isnt going to be on a movie, clearly man his talent sucks.and judgeing a person out of their looks, really? Mature

Oh please he only got on Broadway because of stuntcasting and he was only there for 3 weeks. Talent did not land him that role honey. Go cry about it while wearing your pink sunglasses and stuffing your face with redvines.

Stuntcasting indeed.
While I don’t believe Darren has 0 talent he is far from any Broadway professional. He’s not even the best in Starkid, not on acting, not on singing. He does work better on a stage than on TV, tho. I do give him credit for composing songs. THAT is a trait of his. He was chosen for H2S for his likability among an audience who was sure to fill seats mostly or completely for three weeks. A truer proof will be when he makes a whole Broadway season and it’s not filled with girls who see the play 8 times.

And Broadway wanting him back for a longer run in the summer is totally because he’s horrible. ????????? The amount of Darren hate I’ve seen on this article is astounding and disturbing. You haters are just getting increasingly butthurt by the day.

You wanna know what I find ridiculously stupid? The fact that people purposely come onto articles like this just to bash the characters they don’t like. Like for example, Cas. I know you have your own opinion and all and want to express it, but there’s a certain point where it just get’s annoying. It’s obvious that that he annoys you a lot and his fans so do you really have to come on here and riun the high spirits of the ones that actually want him on the show. You all know he was in this article so it would be easy to just not click onto it. Because really it’s getting pretty pathetic that it seems some of your lives exist to just rant about how much you hate Cas.
And one more thing I want to point out is that it’s dumb to say Cas is poisoning or ruining the show when he hasn’t even been on it. If you haven’t noticed Cas hasn’t been in the show lately and guess what the show has been getting some low ratings. So don’t blame Cas blame the people making the horrible episodes.

The lovers of his character can never manage to put together a few coherent thoughts as to why he is such a valuable addition to the show or why they love him so much or why he should continue to appear.

This is an article about polarizing characters, ie characters people feel strongly about, whether positively or negatively. Pretty much the whole point of this article is for people to come in and say how they feel about said character and why. If Castiel’s fans are allowed to swarm in to articles to declare their undying love and devotion, why can’t people who don’t like him go in and express their opinion as well?

HATE Blaine and Cas. Though hate is too strong of a word. I dislike Blaine because he is a one dimensional character. I haven’t been given enough to like him whereas I’ve been given plently to dislike him for: He’s judgemental(Sam), he’s without flaws(see-singing everything, begining consistently treated as blameless when he’s not and he’s completely without flaws). I know a lot of people claime this character is complex but more often than not that assumeption seems to be based on headcanon than canon. Based solely on the show Blaine is little more than a flat, static, Marty Stu.

It seems like any actor who could make Blaine likeable would have a be a magnificent actor and Darren is not. He’s wildly uneven with his acting. He not terrible but he’s not good either. he’s ok. Just ok.

I don’t hate Cas either. Mishas a good actor. I think the character, Cas, worked for the story in which he was introduced but has since outstayed his welcome. The story is over and I don’t think theres a point need for his character now.

I love Castiel, But I also love Sam and Dean! And Bobby! I think if SPN writers would have given him a better “death story” then I would have been able to accept Castiels death. the whole Cas is God story would have made him an awesome villain even! I really hated how he just “died” in the lake. It was a lame ending with little to no closure so I’m happy he’s back even for just a short while.
Bobby had a pretty cool death story that actually made me cry.

Illiterate? gee thanks. No I just felt your comment was a bit cutting, so I did get defensive. But whatever it’s the internet, we’re all going to die soon anyway, so why not get overly defensive over fictional characters?

How anyone could actually not like Blaine on GLEE is seriously beyond me. Not only is he an extremely likeable character, Darren Criss is beyond talented and a total triple threat. He’s hands down one of the main reasons I look forward to tuning into the show every week and without a doubt the best male singer they have. I mean, really?

Haters will continue to hate, just ignore it and keep liking him. The fact is, the show keeps giving him songs and all they can do is bitch and stay pressed. It’s funny imo, their endless bitterness sustains me.

He is not likeable- He slut shames Sam & didn’t stop immediately when Kurt said no after the bar and he still didn’t have to apologize.
Darren Criss is an embarrassingly bad actor and has only gotten worse since being cast. There’s a reason why he’s given songs and not actual story lines and he can’t even sing without looking like a dumb ass. He’s lucky Chris Colfer shares most of his scenes and manages to elevate them.
He is by no means a triple threat. He can sing a little, dance a little, and can’t act at all. The only reason people love him so much is because people think he’s attractive and all the fangirls like to say they’ve been following him since AVPM/Starkid. It’s embarrassing.

Because not everyone reacts the same to certain situations? He’s unlikeable to me because the show constantly frames him as being perfect when he forced himself onto his boyfriend. He also slut-shamed Sam, let’s not get into the classism one could read into that. Why don’t you live and let live? I’m allowed to dislike a fictional character as much as you’re allowed to love him.

On another note, I don’t find Darren Criss to be a triple threat at all. He’s regularly outacted by those he shares scenes with (the exception to this being Grant Gustin), and as a vocal coach of 12 years I can tell you that it is a fact that his voice is weak. Even with all of the “Glee” processing you can hear his limited range and lack of vibrato. The vibrato is essential to a vocal performer, and it is just not there for him. If you want to know the males on the show that have the strong voices, look at people like Matthew Morrison and Kevin McHale.

It’s not as much a marked vocal improvement as it is that they finally gave him a song suited for his voice. “Cough Syrup” is the best he’s sounded all season, bar none, and that’s because he wasn’t given a song meant to be sung by Broadway heavyweights or musical icons (such as Michael Jackson). There are also issues with the “Glee” arrangements, but that’s an entirely different point. I’ve read that he’s singing Duran Duran next? That’s another bad call by whoever is picking these songs out. Not sure why they’re expecting him to pull off Simon Le Bon vocals.

Not the OP, but there are certain skills he’s never going to be able to improve upon. He was in a musical theatre program for four years, the training was given to him. His voice simply limits him in certain ways.

“beyond talented and a total triple threat” —- oh you mean across the board mediocre jack of all trades? “one of the main reasons I look forward to tuning into the show every week” —- I feel sorry that you have no taste… “without a doubt the best male singer they have”— is this serious…. holy ****. No. Oh God, no. Please tell me you’re trolling because that is the most ridiculous claim I’ve ever heard a blarren stan make.

I HATE Karen from Smash. The character is too much of a Mary Sue and she doesn’t have a good stage voice imo. Not to mention she doesn’t even fit the part the audience is supposed to be rooting for her to get. The other girl fits it better and her story and the overall character is WAY more interesting than Karen.

Sutton is the new queen of evil. Never has a lead character of a prime time soap drama been a cold blooded murder, while manipulating her best friend and her brother whom she slept with twice to turn their own father over to the police in a Greek tragedy way. All the while getting her own twin sister to share a fake locket to the woman that raised her has her own daughter in order to destroy the marriage of her adopted family. And she got her sister to breakup with her true love. Add that her her “Mom” Rebecca did by packing her own sister off to rehab and sending her niece away to her father and you have a hat trick with Murder One.

I get not liking TV characters, for example I hate Karen from SMASH and Karofsky and Will Schuester from Glee more than I should hate fictional characters, but what I don’t get is this need some people have to tear down others for liking something and telling them their OPINION is wrong wrong wrong and they should feel wrong for having it. You hate Cas? Good for you. Can’t stand Blaine? Awesome. Talk about how much you hate them. But telling someone they’re an idiot because they like a character? Immature and disgusting.

Because being called insane for not liking a character has to be answered. That is an offensive thing to say and some of us won’t let it stand. Now, obviously the people truly committed to one opinion or another will keep coming back and replying while the less committed have moseyed away. Frankly 1,638,000 repetitions of YAWN shows more obsession with a POV than thought out responses to insulting descriptions.

I love Castiel. While I can understand someone being “just okay” with him, it honestly boggles my mind that anyone can “hate” him.

He’s a fascinating character– I would have to write an essay to express the complexity and overall beauty of him– but in short, he’s… very human, even though he’s not one. He has flaws and he makes mistakes, but he’s also strong and good and he loves humanity (Dean… I’m especially looking at you). He rebelled against heaven, turned his back on everything he believed in, for humanity. He fought and died for Dean and the Winchesters multiple times. He’s also just a joy to have around– he’s funny and sweet and mysterious, and awesome when he goes all smitey on the bad guys. He’s really easy to relate to… anyone who’s struggled with morality, with identity, with missing fathers, with social awkwardness, with friendships…the list goes on. He’s just a wonderful character and I sincerely adore him.

In the world of Supernatural, (and possibly Dean’s head) Castiel represents hope to me. “Good things do happen, Dean.”

I find both of them incredibly interesting, and I’m excited to see what material Big Brother will give to Blaine, and I’m also looking forward to seeing Castiel back on Supernatural next week. Both Darren Criss and Misha Collins are amazing actors who make the most with what they are given.

CC has written a pilot for the Disney Channel, his own film which is premiering in Tribeca, a book, was one of Time’s 100 Most Influential, won a Golden Globe, etc. Darren was stunt cast in a Broadway musical. Who is jealous again?

… When did me saying I was looking forward to something turn into a Chris Colfer is better than Darren Criss talk? You’re looking for a fight, which you won’t get from me. I love both Chris and Darren the same, and they’re both good friends with each other and have stated that. I honestly don’t understand Darren/Blaine haters and their constant attacks on him. What has he ever done to you?

And fans of Criss do not need to feel jealous or resentful of Chris Colfer or his many accomplishments. Know why?

-Darren has been on Broadway
-Darren has already been approached to be on Broadway again
-Darren is a founder of a theatre company
-Darren is starring in a movie Kristen Wigg
-Darren was named the 3rd sexiest man alive this year
-Darren just sang with Kermit and was named the best part of the Oscars this year by many
-Darren is immensely talented, is a singer, actor, dancer, songwriter, and plays upwards of 7 instruments
-Darren’s accomplishments in no way diminish Chris’s. They are friends, not in a competition.

They’re just bitter Chris Colfer stans who can’t stand how much attention and fame Darren is getting over their golden boy. Or they ship something other than Kurt and Blaine and in their eyes Darren = Blaine. I HATE Chris stans but I LOVE Chris. He deserves a better fanbase than what he has. They’re so mean. Check out ONTD Glee its a festering cesspool of Darren hate. Pathetic really…..

A “Darren Wife” haha wow thats funny. Actually this is the first and probably only time I’ve ever commented on anything in a forum or messageboard. I’m a lurker who is just observant. And my observation is that Chris Colfer’s obsessed fans are really, really mean. And you’ve proved that observation correct with your uncalled for “insult.” I just love the show and everyone in it. They are all incredible. I dont know why they have to be compared at every turn. It seems foolish considering what the show is all about in the first place.

CC has written a pilot for the Disney Channel, his own film which is premiering in Tribeca, a book, was one of Time’s 100 Most Influential, won a Golden Globe, etc. Darren was stunt cast in a Broadway musical. Who is jealous again? :)

I’m a Glee fan not a Darren Criss fan. But the amount of hate he gets in particular upsets me and is taking my enjoyment away from the fandom. It’s just plain mean for no reason at all. Who is this kid hurting? He seems to get more than any other cast member and It’s baffling. Why can’t more than one person on this show be successful?

You’re doing some selective reading on here. The comments are mostly people expressing distaste or dislike for his performance, defensive Darren fans jumping in and not letting people have their own opinions, and then they get trolled for being defensive. Maybe if you guys got the memo that not everyone likes him, you’d be better off.

I completely disagree that it has become the Blaine show or that it ever was. Darren is amazing and I think he works hard to add as much as he can to Blaine’s character despite there not being much there for him.

If you disregard the songs, which more often than not have absolutely no context for Blaine or his character and are either just for fun or to set up a scene he hasn’t really had a story line (although that may change with Big Brother).

1.) When he first arrived it was as a love interest for Kurt we really didn’t learn much about him and as season 2 progressed it stayed that way and most developments between them were shown in relation to Kurt.
2.) In BIOTA we see more of Kurt’s side than Blaine’s.
3.) In sexy we get a hint at something about Blaine but it’s never mentioned again and the whole issue was something to do with Kurt.
4.)Original song, yes they get together but that’s it.
5.)In prom queen a pretty big part of Blaine’s history is mentioned but again it is completely forgotten and his fears are pretty much disregarded by Kurt.
6.)He transfers to McKinley to be with Kurt.
7.)the WSS audition is focused on Kurt and seems to me to try and make Blaine seem like the bad guy which I don’t think is fair.
8.)Even after becoming a regular his function doesn’t change much.
9.)I think that they displayed Klaine in TFT slightly unbalanced. In my own head canon I think that Blaine was more nervous and less ready to go further in their relationship from the conversations with Kurt and Artie and I think a part of the car scene may have happened out of his own fear and anxiety, not that that excuses his behaviour, but that is my idea for the reason behind it but essentially we don’t see Blaine with anyone who is a closer friend to him than Kurt and who he can talk about this with. I think this would have been a great opportunity to properly establish a friendship, possibly with Mike, for Blaine.
10.)Kurt had his whole class president and NYADA storyline and it is mostly done without Blaine except for a bit of hand holding.
11.)We have a freakout in HOTS and a tiny bit more character development but he instantly yields to Finn and there is not mention of it again, not even an apology to Sam.
12.)Blaine jumps in front of a slushee for Kurt and needs surgery, we don’t see him until Kurt and Finchel sing him a song.
13.)He sings cough syrup but there’s no context for his character.

Now, I choose to see part of this as Blaine trying to hide any imperfections or problems he has, thus making him appear perfect but underneath it’s all bubbling away. This might just be the blangst fan in me but I think there might be enough in canon to justify thisI think that Darren works really hard to show that there’s more to Blaine and despite us really not knowing that much about him there are people who love him because despite his mistakes the one thing we do know is that he really does love Kurt.

By that logic, we could say Kurt isn’t given many songs because Chris Colfer is a bad singer. Oops.

(ftr, Colfer is not a bad singer)

Blaine is a marginalized character, suffering because the show is pushing queer couples into the background. Because Kurt is the male lead, he gets stories, but his bf can’t be involved because too much gay.

I love Darren but I totally get why people hate him.
1. He came from nowhere and pretty much stole the attention of the older cast. Its not his fault. Blame FOX for making their new shiny toy. Even Ryan said that the executives love him and since they are the ones who determines who goes where then of course Darren gets the shine.
2. Darren is not that good an actor or singer. He isn’t the best on Glee but somehow he gets all the songs. At this point blame his fanbase and the producers of Glee. His fans buy his music. Maybe not as much as last season but many of the songs he sings even the not so good ones always tend to be one of the top sellers of the week.
3. Darren gets a lot of media love. This is pretty rare for any actor. Some outlets hate you and some are love but not all of them. Its pretty hard to find a legitimate media outlet hate on Darren. This is due to the fact that outside his many faults as an actor or singer he is a very nice and humble person so people that meet him rarely have anything bad to say about him. There must be something else to it because even I don’t understand why the media loves him so much.
4. Darren gets a lot of offers. He gets movie, stage and music offers. Just recently his name was used to promote X factor. Which is pretty impressive despite the fact X factor and Glee share the same network so you know it was probably PR in the first place but great that they used him out of everyone.
5. He is hated because other cast members on Glee will most likely never get the amount of opportunities he has got and will get. This is childish and ridiculous in the fandom. It is not Darren’s fault no one cares about the others as much as him,Chris, Lea and Cory.

All the reasons are some of the reasons he is hated. But you know what I love-he has haters. Its a sign of a star on the rise when the media loves and you have haters. What this means is the people who matter ( the media) will continue to get you noticed in Hollywood while the pressed, bored, ONTD style haters will counterbalance the love. Oh and another thing if you want Darren to fade away maybe stop keeping him on everyone’s radar by talking about him.

Bring on the hate because as you do in the karmic universe he keeps getting more offers. Maybe as a result of all this hate we will soon hear Darren has been cast in another movie.

ONTD has a hate hard on for Darren more so than any other comm on the internet. Not more than the disturbing and lolworthy KurT/Chris colfer comms which I entered once and had to return to the safety of L Chat.

The reason why Chris Colfer stans hate Blarren is because Chris is an infinitely more influential and talented human being that Blarren will ever dream of being, and Kurt a much more important and groundbreaking character, yet Blarren is CONSTANTLY touted as the more attractive, talented, and manly of the two: by fans, by the show, by the media, by everyone, and Kurt is Blaine’s “groupie”?!!!!! How could any real Chris stan like what has happened to his character because of Blaine? Before Blaine, Kurt was strong, sharp-witted, and funny. Now he’s a shell of his former self, relegated to making heart eyes and singing dopey love songs once every ten episodes while everyone praised Blarren for being so supermegafoxyawesomehot, as if that’s some kind of achievement. The old Kurt has been dead since he and Blarren got together, brought out only recently through his fights with Sebastian. He owns Blarren on screen across the board and yet everyone praises Blarren as the superior actor and character. It’s ridiculous.

I really wish no one had commented on this stupid article. There are enough ship wars and arguments all over the internet. Why did TVline feel the need to spark another one? This a cheap ploy and a completely pointless article with the intention of getting loads of people onto their website. They don’t even provide reasons as to why any of the characters are on the list, they just put it up and wait for the fans to come like rabid dogs.

Supernatural fans are crazy. I dread reading the comments in these articles because of the hate. Anyway…

I love Cas, and I agree that he’s polarizing. However, don’t believe the haters when they tell you that they’re in the majority. The “Cas fans are a loud minority” thing has been one of their talking points since their CW Lounge days. Bless these haters…sorry, I mean “skeptics”.

Sam is actually also a polarizing character, but put me in the LOVE camp. I love my floppy-haired Sasquatch. Oh yeah, that’s another thing: Cas haters like to say that Cas fans hate Sam. I can attest that that is not true for the majority of Cas fans that I have interacted with online and in real life.

Dean is surprisingly becoming a polarizing character too, to my great surprise, but not as much as those other two.

This is so true! All three have become polarizing characters throughout the show, although Cas has always been, and I, for one, never really liked Sam much. I think he and Dean are a great pair, and I love Dean, so the show’s still fun to watch.

Guys I love how we think our pointless opinions on the internet are going to influence anything about the actors that play these roles. TVLine I know you need its for your website but cmon. The twelve people that are posting here using many other names myself included need to go to bed.

I like Betty and Ted. I mean they are not my favorites but I don’t hate them. I don’t hate Castiel either. I don’t want neither of them polarazing. Why didn’t you cast Jon Draper?

But, I hate Dan and find him irritating. As a character he didn’t change a bit from the beginning, he is still pretentious and judgemental douche. He is plain boring and can not even carry his own SL. Tho I don’t think he is polarising too because he has more haters than lovers STILL! Its not in the amount of polarising :) Chuck is not polarasing too imo because of the same reason. He has more lovers than haters STILL! <3 Chuck and Blair carry the show.

Nobody was thinking about D till last year second half (like Chuck said in 2×5 to him and that scene is still the most popular scene of Dan becaue of Chuck). Thats why they made this DB nonsense and irritating SL imo. And now the show sucks.

I found Baitacus polarasing in Spartacus. People both loved and hated him imo. He was so entertaining to watch tho. When he died it felt empty and wrong but the story continues there.

This is a thread about characters. Leave your actor hate elsewhere. And as for Darren not being talented… okay so maybe you don’t like his voice or w/e but he is an amazing song writer and despite your opinions can act and sing, maybe not to your taste but it’s ridiculous to say that he is not talented.

It is not ridiculous to say he’s not talented. He is an average songwriter. His songs are catchy but it’s nothing outstanding or new.
And he has a pleasant voice but again, nothing we haven’t hear before.
And he is a bad actor. He brings me out of scenes by how bad he is. He over emotes and he hasn’t learned how to bring subtly into a performance.

He’s really not that good of a songwriter. I used to be a big fan of his and I’ve heard most of the things he’s written. I thought they were good then because I had my Blarren goggles on, but looking back, he’s really not amazing or special in that regard (or any regard to be honest).

Actually the only two kids-actors on Glee who have an acting degree are probably the worst actors on the show… So yeah, I guess in the field of the arts schools or education only get you so far.
But I guess the OP didn’t want to stan for Darren but just wanted to clarify that he – as opposed to someone others claim – doesn’t have a musical theater degree, but only a theater degree.

I mentioned his voice, and Wikipedia says: “He initially pursued degrees in Musicology, Italian, and Theater Performance, though he eventually decided to solely major in Theater Performance, and obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in 2009.”